Chapter 30 - Just some Paperwork

Lady Tersou the Royal Bodyguard broke the short silence. "Well then I suggest we discuss the plan for the next week a bit more in detail ...." It took us an hour of chatting to hammer our all the small details for the future lessons. Currently it was mainly going to focus on the duties of a Duke and was expected of me from the nobility. They would threat me as an outsider anyway but it would help how to avoid being an fool infront of them. To my surprise all three of my teacher had suggestions for each other's lesson plan. I did not had the feeling of them fighting for each other attention but rather more that they had points that they saw as a priority to mention. I was amazed that the countess reacted to a suggestion from the madam with only a short. "Oh yes you are right." Instead of dwell on their difference in standing.

Even Suha gave a few suggestions here and there but her main contribution was the one who gave the final approval of a plan. Gabrielle meanwhile was more involved in the actual concrete planning of location and needed materials as well as writing everything down in its final form. Especially since it was decided that Lizbeth would join me in most of the lessons. After a while this however made me stop and ponder. "Say I know that there are boarding schools where children can be send to learn but are there no daily schools in the kingdom?" It was Gabrielle who answered my question. "There are no state run schools or anything like that. Boarding schools are private for those that can pay and some religions have their own schools for their followers. Some of the bigger trade institutes do too but nothing like a school system like I heard the Empire employs. The only thing coming close to them is the Royal Academy but they require a certain level to be meet in form of education and compensation so that common citzen are an rather rare event"

I pondered about that for a moment. "The empire has schools in every bigger city to man their many civil servants that they need. Of course being the empire corruption is never far so the good civil position requie the school and money or prestige ." The countess spoke up next. "There have been three attempts so far in the history of the kingdom to introduce a general school system. They all failed on the costs and the ignorance of the merit of more accessible knowledge. The house of Laris was among the opponents of such a law so far but definitely not the only one." It was Suha who asked the question that came up to my mind. "Is there a law against privately funding a public school?" That made the countess hesitate. "I don't remember any but let me check once I return home and I will be able to give you a clear answer once we meet up the next time." I nodded to her with a smile and we continued our plans for a while longer.

It was surprising how much planning one needs to do to set up a lesson plan. Thankfully Suha and Gabrielle had a way better understanding of what was needed then I did and made plans for Lizbeth education as well. It was agreed that if we would have such excellent teachers in our house she should get as much of the education as they could and would deliver to her until we decided what to do with a school visit with her. We all agreed that a boarding school was out of question and most of the church schools would either deliver a ... to focused ... education or refuse to take her especially the one of former duke had followed.

It was Lady Tersou who mentioned that the church had tried to get a retrial of the judgment against the Duke, but was shut down quickly by the confession of guilt and a royal degree that confirmed that the result was in accordance with the laws and tradition of the kingdom. The family behind the former duke had filed something similar with the same result. In general there was not a big movement so far after all the laws used where part of the old common laws ... they just never had been interpreted or used in this way against a noble. The protest had been mild but sometimes it took a while for things to manifest so for now it was wait and see.

Once we were finished with the plan and the discussion our three guest rose an turned towards me. "It was a pleasure to meet your Grace." It was the countess who spoke the goodbye words while the other two arranged themselves behind her. I shook my head with a smile. "The pleasure was all mine. I will see you tomorrow then." They smiled and bowed before turning and following the maids. All three would return tomorrow, two to move in and the third to find and prepare a room that was suited as a workroom and maybe teach the first lesson. Madam Tersou waited a moment before speaking up. "Now that is done I have found three candidates for the position of butler but haven't got a positive response from them yet. I expect them to send word or make their appearance to me during this week." I nodded "I will look forward to meeting them then. I assume that because of the urgency the pool will be limited?"

She shook her head slightly. "I think two of the candidates, if they life up to how I saw them before, would suit you even if it was not a urgent matter. The third ... is a longshot, both in terms of availability and compatibility but not in skill of course, still it doesn't hurt to have more options." We were slowly walking back towards the main house. She had some paperwork to clear up that was apparently already waiting in my office. Gabrielle had silently took my left arm while Suha behind us was chatting with Marie and Johanna. To my surprise she seemed to have found some common ground with these two and I could hear the one or other chuckle from behind us.

"How likely do you think that your candidates will accept the invitation?" Gabrielle spoke up beside me with a soft smile. The warrior rubbed the back of her neck before answering. "They all will at least answer my letter. If all of them will accept an interview I sadly can't say at this point." We both nodded before Gabrielle spoke up with. "By the way I have heared that ..." It was about all kinds of rumors of the royal court which had little impact on me since I didn't knew the people involved or even half of the significant of what they were talking about. But apparently both of them were well versed in the palace rumors. With the difference only being that the fighter could confirm or dispel most of the rumors while they black haired beauty at my side did only hear about them. However with a few she could return the favor confirming or denying rumors that appeared to be more of the surrounding of the former duke.

I meanwhile did not only struggle to follow their conversation but had a hard time to concentrate with the dark haired beauty being so close and using her free hand to actively emote while talking about court rumors. Suha had already walked me like this before but Gabrielle did it somehow different. There was a lot more accidental contact happening along the whole side and I fought hard not to show a blush when she pressed herself a bit stronger against me for a moment. All my mind could think of was the warm body pressed against me and the scolding that the disapproving Suha would give later on. Even without turning my head I could feel her eyes burning into us from behind.

It was only once that we reached the office that Gabrielle let my side and the talk became more serious again. The bodyguard sat down at the small table hat was in the room and took up a document and glancing at it before speaking up "The attacker that we caught thanks to Johanna have revealed a name of their supposed supporter, but it feels off. They were to willing to speak up after the week of stubborn silence. We think that nobody was able to visit them but ... well it feels suspicious that both suddenly decided to talk within half a day ... and both mentioned the little sister of the former duke." Suha suddenly spoke up from behind us. "Which attackers? Something you forgot to mention oh dear duke?" She looked to me with raised eyebrow and firm face that basically said. Confess now and I might not yell at you.

I shook my head slightly. "I am sorry It was where I meet the dear bodyguard when an assassin tried to silence me a day after the former duke had been imprisoned. It just slipped my mind that you were not informed about it." The bodyguard spoke up. "Madam Johanna managed to subdue two of the attackers while the third sadly managed to slip away from me and her grace here. We have found out by the way how they managed to get in. Thankfully it wasn't a traitor but a unsecured entrance that was long forgotten. Their knowledge of that passage and the usage of it indicates someone with a lot of influence or local knowledge. The door was not really hidden just locked from the inside and everybody assumed that the people in charge knew about it."

Suha shook her head slightly. "The young sister of the former duke is most likely not the one who would hire the attackers. For one she was and still is not in the capital or she would have already given you an ear full." She said pointing to me with a smile. "For the other while she is influential within her family she has no a direct source of a power and would have little to gain by her older brother still being in charge. Him being removed however gives her a lot of opportunities." We looked at her in surprise. "Forgive me milady but how do you know?"

"Because she was the only ally the Harmen had against our former husband. Without her he would have had free rain, and nobody would have ever know what was going on but since she was staying in the Harem every time she was visiting the capital city ... well she managed to strengthened my position in the household and made him hesitant to do to much towards us. Currently she should be on a visit to her grandmother in the southern provinces ... she left five days before the arrest. Of course I have no proof that she actually went there but, again, I am fairly certain that she wont be the one who would call for an attempt just because her brother was imprisoned." The bodyguard nodded towards that.

"Thank you for this information, I will include hat in the report to the Queen and we will see how to progress. We most likely will still have to investigate her, but if we can confirm her leaving and using an ship, as one normally would towards the south, then there is little chance that news of her brother would have reached her by the time the attack happened. Yet alone organizing an group of attackers and sending them into the Palace. The third attacker hasn't been caught yet and we sadly needed to relax the guards at the gate a bit but I am fairly confident that if she had tried to leave the city we would have been able to notice her. After all her injury with her size are nothing to common or easy to hide."

She sighed silently pondering about something before shakeing her head. "Well then on to the next part. The Buttler of the former duke has been found guilty for the charges of conspiracy and long list of other offenses. He managed to get a reduced sentence of five years of hard labor instead of gallows by sharing everything he knew about the inner workings of the friends of the former duke. I am afraid he won't be able to return. Same with the guards that where arrested. Most of them will face some prison time or at the verry least some public work."

She switched to the next paper. "The crow received many request of people wanting to get a piece of your money. None of them have any chance but we are obliged to tell the house of Laris what is going on. Most of them are former partners of his who either had a bad deal or are just greedy. The officials will entice them to share information and arrests those that knew more about the crimes of the duke and remind the rest that the court ruling was final. Still I bet some of them will try to go directly to you. Its one of the reasons why we introduced the countess to you. She will be able to assist or know who to recommend when such a case will happen." She shrugged again before giving us a List. "Those are the cases that we already can tell with relative certainty are trying to just gain the money. This is of course not official, but Furo wanted to give me this just in case." I sighted and nodded my thank to her. Gabrielle gently took the piece of paper glancing at it. "I will pass this on to Madam Laferin so she can inform us should one of those try and make contact." I nodded in thanks to her then looked back to the Bodyguard.

"And lastly. The ambassador of the tribes wishes to make her appearance sometimes during the week ... to quote her: "You had now enough time to settle in now I you better introduce me to your new family." I fought the reflex to hide my head in my hands. That was definitely my aunt. Of course, she could have just come and visit at any time but she had clearly made up her mind to be all Diplomatic. "Thank you .... You can tell my aunt that she is of course welcome in my home at any time, but since there is so much to do, I think a visit in 3 days time should be enough." I looked towards my ... wifes to see if there was any disagreement but Gabrielle just shrugged while Suha nodded a short confirming nod. "And sorry for her making you deliver such a simple thing."

The bodyguard chuckled. "It is all ok. It was a official request of the Ambassador to visit a prominent member of the kingdom. Of course it would have more gravitas if the Embassy was older then a week but that's beside the point." She smirked gently then looked through the notes again. "Everything else are just reports from the guards here but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Someone started to paint on the east wall but was detained ... apparently he did not count on there being royal guards behind the door he was just trying to write a smear message on. It read something like 'Ivet is a wh' and that's when they got to him." She chuckled reading it. Since it was a personal message with just a bad choice of placement, they made him clean it up once he was sober. But since you are the head of the house you should know about it. I assume you don't want to follow it any deeper?"

I shrugged then looked to my wife. "Would it reflect badly on our house if we left it by that?" They smiled and shook their head. "Since it had been removed quickly and was not aimed at any of us no I don't think so." It was Gabrielle who answered me while Suha nodded in agreement. I pondered "I don't want to punish him harshly for that but ... would it be within my right to ask him to write a public letter of apology towards that Ivet and have it displayed somewhere prominent. With his first name as signature. In exchange for not perusing it any further."

She hesitated. "That is certainly unique ... I can suggest it to him as an agreement between the house of laris and him ... but I would suggest we talk to the countess first ... and he has to apologize to Ivet ... whoever she is not you?" I nodded. "While it was our wall he decided to use for his crude message It was clearly intended to offend her. If you think its stupid we can ignore it." She shook her head. "Not at all I think it fits the tone of the crime nicely. But I would like to ask the countess first she can explain more if there are any potential pitfalls with ideas like that. Not that I can see any but meh letting him simmer for a day doesn't hurt."

She looked through the pages infront of heragain. "Well there was nothing else that the guard or I wanted from you. Andusually it would be Elaina giving you these reports but since I was herealready *she shrugged* It was Suha who suddenly spoke up. "We are going to havelaunch soon .... Would you like to join us?" She was asking the Bodyguard butincluded my two friends too with just a few short glances and warm smiles. "If Iwont be a bother sure .... The palace will function without me or a short whilelonger." She answered while returning the smile. Johana and Marie gave a softhalf bow and nod towards my wife.

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Wooohooo Just a month well a bit more but still not half  year xD So many ups and down but i really love to make progress with this. For the buttler i first wanted to introduce the new Buttler  in this chapter but then realised that i just had introduced three new characters so having yet one more felt to much ... I soon will be able to get a bit more time to pass ... after all it had been less then a week in book time since she had become the Duke xD Chapter 12 to 30 where only 3 to 4 days ... busy eventful days but still ^^

The acompaning book is slowly takeing shape too ... but writing the timeline and finding the characters in the book proven to be ... intresting xD So we will see when i am finally able to have it up for you guys having a easier time to remember what is what .... and me to remember what skin/hair/eye color who had xD

I am looking forward to the meeting of the aunt with the family xD so much potential for embaressing moments ^^

Gabrielle suppised me when writing with basically snuggleing with the duke ... it might have been to tease the duke or to tease Suha ^^ Who knows ^^

Anyway have fun and stay save everybody =)